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Feelings; we can name them but do we allow ourselves to feel them? Ben Wrigley of the Active Listener writes that it’s the British way to squash down those messy embarrassing feelings. We even unconsciously learn in childhood that we can replace one feeling with another; whats described in Transactional Analysis as a racket feeling.

Ben writes about living without feelings as not living life to the full; as if you had blurred vision or experienced muffled sound or numb touching. Squashing down our feelings can result in us being depressed and anxious and can even affect our physical health.

As I was driving about yesterday I listened to an article on the radio about a woman who had applied for a divorce which her husband didn’t want. The judge refused to grant the divorce advising the couple that their disputes were a ‘normal’ part of married life. What followed was some rather uncomfortable listening as callers spoke of their similar experiences of contested divorce.

As the Book of Life writes

“Anyone we might marry could, of course, be a little bit wrong for us. We don’t expect bliss every day. We know that perfection is not on the cards.”

However why do we often marry so “unintelligently”? The Book of Life explains……..

New research reported in the journal PLOS One shows that the benefits of eating fruit and vegetables goes far beyond physical health. Young adults who were given just 2 extra cups of fruits and vegetables each day for 14 days experienced a boost in motivation and vitality.

This is the first study to show these results and the team recommend that large scale investigations are needed.

You could carry your own experiment to see if upping your fruit and vegetable intake has a positive effect on your motivation!

Have you been listening on Radio 4’s PM to the interviews between presenter Eddie Mair and the journalist Steve Hewlett?

Every week for a few months now Steve has been recounting his experience of cancer and his challenges with getting the right treatment. The interviews make for poignant listening and it’s not often, as Steve has pointed out, that you hear two men talking about cancer.

Eddie visits Steve in hospital now where he got married last week to his partner Rachel after the consultant told him that his treatment couldn’t continue and that he had weeks, maybe months to live.

Feeling passionate about the people and the things in your life is a great blessing and a real joy. Joanne Arena writes about her passions and the passions of her friends and what compelled her to get out of her bed so early yesterday morning to write about them.

This article is quite timely with the approach of valentines day tomorrow. I think it’s an opportunity to think out of the box a little bit and extend the idea of love and passion to not just about the people in our lives but passion about our life itself.

So I’ll leave you with this question…… Do you need to find your passion?

When you read a headline like this it’s very easy indeed to be skeptical about the findings reported. However this peer reviewed research was reported in the open access medical journal BMC Medicine and the findings are very encouraging.

This new trial from a leading Australian University has shown that improving diet can be used to treat major depression. In this study adults with major depressive disorders were recruited and assigned at random with either support from clinical dietitian or social support for three months.

So if you are curious as to what dietary changes were made and you want to find out more click on the link below.

When we experience the feeling of loneliness it can actually influence our biology. Our ability to live, work and cooperate in groups is so important to our survival. We are social beings. So if companionship is an asset to survival then the opposite; social isolation must have negative effects.

Loneliness can literally break your heart

Studies have shown that loneliness is associated with heart disease and high blood pressure. Now new research is investigating how loneliness increases our bodies inflammatory response just as if you were suffering from an injury or had an infection.

If you are feeling stressed or anxious then practicing mindfulness meditation for just eight weeks could significantly help. A new study published in the Journal of Psychiatry Research found that mindfulness meditation lowers stress hormones and decreases inflammation in the body. A group of participants were trained to focus on the present moment and to accept thoughts and feelings that they were finding difficult.

There are some great books out there to help you get started with mindfulness. My favourites are ‘Mindfulness: Finding Peace in a Frantic World’ by Mark Williams and Danny Penman and ‘Why Can’t I Meditate’ by Nigel Wellings.

When I look for articles to review about on my ‘Best of the Web’ page the World of Psychology never fails to have some great blogs. This one is by Laqwanda Roberts a Youtuber and mental health advocate who writes with honesty about her battles with depression and loneliness and her return to therapy.

I really like the way she explains why she has taken herself back to therapy. She writes that she needed more than pep talks from friends or coworkers. She knew she needed professional help and a voice other than her own to weed out the irrational thoughts that plagued her mind.